Disinfective and antiseptic compound for the treatment of ulcers, sores, and the like



s PATENT. OFFICE DISINFECTIVE AND ANTISEPTIC COMPOUND son 'rnn TREATMENTor means, scans, AND THE Linn John H. Miiller, Secane, Pa.; Anna L.Muller and Provident Trust 00., executors oi. said John H.

Miller, deceased, assignors to Silver Oxide Products Company,Incorporated, a corpora- UNITED; STATE tion of Pennsylvania No Bra 6Claims.

This application for Letters Patent is, in part, a continuation of mypending application for Letters Patent, entitled Disinfective andantiseptic compound for the treatment of ulcers,

sores and the like, filed September 27, 1933,

which has received the Serial'Number 691,246, and my invention relatesto the preparation of a fluid or semi-fluid compound having a disin-Iective and antiseptic eflect when applied to the Application May 25,1936, Serial No. 81,645

its mass so that, on coming into contact with the watery fluids of thebody; the small particle of silver oxide is rapidly converted into a.solution of silver hydroxide which, while highly eflicient as adisinfectant, acts as such in a quite diiierent 5 v way from that ofcommon silver'oxide applied in more ponderable particles in that it hasno tendency to cauterize and injurehealthy tissue and is not liable tobring about any permanent stains 10 treatment of ulcers, sores,abrasions, various skin n e b y to w h t is a p Such Silver 85 10eruptions or the likeoi': to any more or less inis evolved from mycompound in the deoxidation iected surfaces of a human or animal body ofthe silver oxide passing off with the wastes of whether such surfacesexist in internal or exthebody. s

ternal portions of the body and which can be It is also true, I havefound, that the exceedapplied without injury to healthy cellular tissueingly small particle size oi-the colloidal silver ox 15 and my inventionconsists in a colloidal suspension and distribution of silver oxide in anonreactive and inert fluid or semi-fluid vehicle and particularly, andforI believe, the best results, in acolloldal suspension of silver oxidein one of lde enables it to pass through the normal skin of man oranimal, or through the pores promptly reaching the more watery tissueand entering the blood stream, no doubt as a hydroxide or other form ofionic silver solution and thus reaching the or a mixture of aliphatichydrocarbons of infected re ions of th b dvn t rdina a sthev paramnseries comprehended within the sible by superficial application of amedicinal general formula Crimn+2- This class of hydrocompound.

carbons is, to a marked degree, nonreactive with My new compound can beconveniently manucolloidal silver oxide. The inactivity of theparaffactured by precipitating silveroxide from an 2 fln hydrocarbonstoward silver oxide constitutes aqueous solution of silver nitrate byaddition of an important factor in my new remedial coman excess ofsodium hydroxide. The precipi-' pound because this very active oxideshould extated oxide is filtered and washed upon suction ist in thepreparation as such without any chemi. filterswitii distilled wateruntil free from other 6 cal reaction with the fluid or semi-fluidcarrier. products of the reaction. The residual mass of It is a matterof chemical knowledge that all or finely divided silver oxide is thenfreed as far as practically all vehicles of an organic naturecanpossible from water by continued suction and is not remain in contactwith silver oxide without then'dehydrated in special ovens protectedfrommore or less rapid reduction of the oxide tometai ust or other r d ininfluences. It is then or formation of complex silver compounds andmixed in known ratio by weight with the non- 35 hence'such mixturescannot be constrihad as mixreactive hydrocarbon vehicle. This mixture istures of silver oxide of known composition. then passed through acolloid mill and is in!- In referring to the condition of the silveroxide ther subjected to dispersion in a pebble mill until as colloidal,I mean that the particle size of the requ ed particle size is obtained.This, when 40 oxide distributed through the inert vehicle should carri dout to a suflicient extent, produces a colpredominantly and preferablyentirely be of dimensions less than that of a micron and. in practice Ihave found it, desirable that the particles should predominantly be ofdimensions approximating one-half to three-tenths or less of a vehicleso that, on application to a surface the contained silver oxideparticles come into contact with the treated surface very shortly afterapplication, and, also because this fine, division 7, of the silveroxide results in giving to each-parti-- cle a relatively enormoussurface in relation to loidal suspension of known silver oxide contentwhich can be subsequently diluted with a nonreactive hydrocarbon orhydrocarbon mixtures, (paraflins), of any desired consistency so as togive a final product of any required fluidity and 45 mon use but anydesired concentration of the 50,,

colloidal silver oxide can be prepared at the discretion of thephysician in the treatment of special cases.' I havefound in practicethat to produce a proper colloidal comminution of the silver oxide sothat it will contain particles of 55 I contact with the surface untilthe fluid or semifluid vehicle is practically denuded of the suspendedcolloidal silver oxide particles and the silver oxide particles comingthus progressively in contact with the treated surface pass into thenormal skin or its pores and into contact with the more watery cellulartissue lying beneath it or adjacent to it into direct contact withcellular tissue not protected by the normal skin and/or absorbed intosuch cellular tissue and thence pass into the blood stream without anycaustic action upon the surfaces of tissues treated, such as would tendto injure normal tissue and presumably as a silver hydroxide solutionthe effect being to act as a disinfectant of not only the immediatesurface treated but also adjacent portions of the body not directlyaccessible, this being accomplished without such liability of bringingabout deposits of silver in the treated surface or elsewhere formingpermanent discolorizations.

.My new compound, which is a mixture of colloidal silver oxide in aninactive vehicle, takeson a mildly alkaline nature when brought ir icontact with the water invariably present in living tissues. In this waysilver oxide mixture is purposely used as a reservoir for production ofsilver hydroxide, a mild alkaline oxidant which is harmless to normalcellular structures and comparable in alkalinity with blood plasmaitself.

It will be understood that the essential feature of my new medicinalcompound lies in the com bination of a colloidal subdivision anddistribution' of the silver oxide with the inert vehicle which minimizesany tendency to the formation of aggregates of the oxide particles sothat, on application, the colloidal particles of silver oxide comeprogressively into contact with the tissues of the body to which it isapplied and are available for rapid absorption thereby, presumably as asilver hydroxide solution, and certainly without any such cauterizingeffect upon the tissues treated as is often brought about by theapplication of the common silver oxide in more ponderant states ofsubdivision and without danger of bringing about a staining of the skincaused by silver in the reduced condition, such as has been liable tooccur on theapplic'ation of other silver compounds.

Having now described my invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is: g

1. The method of preparing a form of silver oxide which will dissolveand form the hydroxide without undergoing substantial reduction to formmetallic silver when brought into contact with the human skin, whichcomprises precipitating silver oxide in an aqueous vehicle, dryingsuchprecipitate and then mechanically grinding such oxide. while protectedagainst moisture by an inert, oily, anhydrous vehicle until it has anaverage particle size of less than onemicron diameter.

2. A method as specified in claim 1, in which the grinding is continueduntil the average particle size of the silver oxide is less thanone-half of a micron.

3. Anhydrous colloidal silver oxide in the form of particles of anaverage diameter of less than one micron and small enough so that when athin film of a dispersion of such particles in an inert, oily, anhydrousvehicle is brought into contact with a moist body such as the humanskin, the silver particles will migrate to the contact boundary and passinto solution hs silver hydroxide without leaving any substantialsurface markin of reduced silver. I

4. Silver oxide as specified in claim 3, in which the average particlesize is less than one-half a micron.

5. A dispersion in an inert, anhydrous, oily vehicle of silver oxide; inthe form of colloidal particles of average diameter of less than onemicron and small enough so that when a thin film of such dispersion isbrought into contact with a moist body such as a human skin, the silverparticles will migrate to the contact boundary and pass into solution assilver hydroxide without leaving any substantial surface marking ofreduced silver.

6. A dispersion as specified in claim 5 in which the inert vehicle is analiphatic hydrocarbon of the paraffln series.

JOHN H. MULLER.

